sparx maths

[SomersetBrie]

I'm a parent of a Y10 who has recently started using sparx maths with school.
I am wondering what other parents/teachers think of it.
DS is good at maths but is struggling with the homework style in general and the difficulty in getting 100%.
I assumed it was a him problem (he has plenty of those!) but I came across some very negative comments online about sparx (mainly from students) and just wondered what others thought.
I thought it sounded great from the email we got from school, but getting more questions in your areas of difficulty and minimal help with these areas has been very frustrating for him.

Y10 DS hates it, haven't found a single person/parent yet who has anything good to say about it. Ds used to do maths homework no problem, now hates it. They've introduced it for English now too. Hates that. Personally I think it's a cost thing, maths teachers are thin on the ground and hard to recruit... less time marking and setting actual homework has got to be better from a time management perspective for schools. A shame that it's rubbish for the kids. They were setting detentions for not completing it but now this is framed as 'Sparx Club'after school as there were so many kids not doing or finishing it.

My two DD’s dislike the maths side they are Yr7 & Yr9 but absolutely despise the reading. My eldest DD is an avid reader, she buys her own books from birthday/Christmas money etc but she gets so frustrated at the reader side, she cries several times out of sheer frustration.

Schools trying to pretend learning online like this is a more effective way to teach, sadly. The amount of money wasted on these computer systems creates a Sunk Costs Fallacy and it's never a good time to stop. Thankfully we moved from a school using it for science - dyslexic DD was in tears every homework because it wouldn't accept her answers because of spelling issues. All the Academic Head of the school said was "it will make her check her work". Great help that was, really showing his SEN training!

I do absolutely understand it's user when teaching is so understaffed, Andy I think that things like sparks can be useful really got getting kids to do exercises and then teachers only need to monitor completion not mark them all. After all so much of maths skills is about repetition, like muscle memory really. But for me, as I said above, the big flaw with sparks is not being allowed to get something wrong and still complete the set task. That is so frustrating for children and even my very good mathematician daughter (as in gets entered for maths competitions) has at times tried repeatedly,watched the videos etc but only got there in the end with help from dh. For children without someone to help at home it must be so disheartening. I would have to include my kids if dh were not around, I'm fine up to a point but I can't do the trickier bits of GCSE maths.

At least with Hegarty it would be marked wrong, you could finish the set of questions and it would still list you as completing the homework if you had some wrong. Presumably them when checking compliance the teacher could see if the pupil was struggling and intervene if needed.

Our school have started getting them to do the star reading assessments. Is that linked to sparks?

They are not fans. They did accelerated reader through primary and were not fans of that either but at least had fairly free choice of books to read. Then secondary introduced AR too but just encouraged rather than forced so dd ignored it. Poor Ds just in year 7 seems to be being made too so these assessments and I worry that they will end up being named to do AR or similar. He really doesn't like doing them but he's is a big reader. Tricky to push out of his comfort zone to more mature books but always has a book on the go and I am would hate his enjoyment to be squashed and for him to stop wanting to read. Dd Will grumble too if forced but has the maturity too see it as a tick box exercise, do it and then go back to what she actually wants to read. The can't exactly accuse her of not liking reading, she's a student librarian and lives in the library (or did until it became a classroom due to RAAC).

My DS (Y11) hates it, he never does it and his teacher has just given up trying to make him! He does other maths work though!

You can ask the teacher to turn down the difficulty level or reduce the amount of questions.

DS13 is dyscalculic and we love Sparx in our house. The steady repetition and tailoring topics to his level has really built his confidence, he had terrible maths anxiety in the past.

He does all the working required and finds the book work checks straightforward. It's largely responsible for him sticking in top set despite his dyscalculia.

Much better than Hegarty.

I liked Hegarty. Mr Hegarty sold out to Sparks. The videos are not great. The questions are worse because they don't use the same terminology as the video explanations. For example, a question will use x, y, z but the video will use p,q,r. Sometimes the video will use x, y, z but to represent different parts of the method that the x,y and z are used for in the question.

And as for 'I have written an explanation' as an answer, what child is seriously going to click 'I haven't written an explanation'??

Its not too bad
But dc is y7
School dont mark any other homework
You can look at other topics in your own time

But
I would say it isnt adaptive as it doesnt get harder
The compulsory is always less thsn 30min. Which isnt a lot in a week.
Calling it boost means dc doesnt want to do those q and target theres only ever 5.
We've only had to use the video a couple of times.
There aqre limited questions on a topic so dc has covered them all so has no revision ones. And thphe questions are simpler than ones on the topic tests at school.

We also have sparx reader
Some questions i havent been able to answer
Seems hard to be able read own books on there

I’m a maths teacher and we don’t use Sparks or sparx or whatever it is called thank fully. I would hate it if my pupils really hated my homework. We do sometimes use a programme called Dr Frost, but that allows them to get something wrong. I actually find it quite helpful to see how many of them get various questions wrong, so I can go over the most difficult ones in class.

Also - maths A-level is great! Hard work, but amazing concepts and questions.

DS most of the time gets on with it fine. But I do agree when he’s got stuck and I’ve had to help the videos/explanations are not great. But we get there in the end and it’s the first time he’s been complemented on his writing out his workings and they do count towards marks in gcse.

I tell my daughter (year 10) not to bother with it. It was causing upset / frustration and therefore in my opinion, not helpful at all.
We have been using SaveMyExams, MathsGenie and Dr Frost. So still doing homework but not what the teacher set. DD is predicted an 8/9.

DS in Y9 has gradually adapted to the Maths side, and now doesn't moan too much. Not sure how much he shows his working though, he's the type to do all the work in his head and divine the answer - he's much faster than me!

He totally detests the reader though, to the extent that we had complete refusal at one point. He reckoned that it didn't give enough points for the exercises and it took him forever to get the required 300 points. I think he had a moan at his teacher and maybe she adjusted something but he does get through it now (but mostly by doing daily tasks during his lunchbreak in the library)

My y8 ds hates it too for all the reasons above. He's gone from loving maths to seeing it as a painful chore. It's one of the reasons we're taking him to another school for yr9 before he completely loses any love of learning

I am not sure that this is the issue, I don't think it's too difficult and generally I would be in favour of a homework where a few questions are hard.
Also, it never really occurred to me to ask a teacher for easier homework, although my DS would LOVE that!

That's good to hear. Has it translated into better performances in tests, exam questions, etc?

My DS has just got better at sparx rather than improving at maths, I think.

Dd is very weak at maths and hates it as according to her it makes her repeats questions she got wrong so takes her hours. She now pays friends in top set of maths to do it for her.

Another one here with a Y10 who has lost his love of maths through Sparx Maths. It regularly reduces him to tears and it gives me the fucking rage when I get emailed reminders about how many percent he has completed by a certain time of the week

I think it's quite good on the whole, but I know students who dislike it for various reasons - but also quite a few who do like it. There is a lot that is determined by the school and it's those things that often students complain about - homework not at the right level, or what happens when you don't get a question right etc. It can be set so that you try the question twice, and if you still don't get it, then it tells you to ask your teacher for help, for example. The bookwork codes do seem pointless to me. The schools can determine when different topics are assigned, so another of the complaints - that it asks questions on topics they haven't done yet - is again more to do with how the school is setting it. So is the amount, and whether they have to watch the videos or not - I don't know anyone who watches the videos unless they are stuck! I do find that the videos are almost too specific - it juts shows them how to do that question exactly, rather than being more general about the topic and teaching them the maths behind it.

I think the fact that it asks questions in lots of different ways is helpful, and it often targets some of the common misperceptions and errors when it asks questions - I can see how this might be quite annoying to children, but I think it does work. I think also the fact that it keeps bringing back old questions is very useful. I'd say it's more useful at the younger ages of secondary; I'm not sure the questions are involved enough at the higher end - it teaches the topics ok but not solving a whole problem where you need many skills.

I dont' like that schools use it as the entirety of maths homework, because I think it's not enough on its own. But it has its uses, and some of the things that students complain about are actually really good for them (the mixed topic practice!), while others I'd agree are very annoying (copying out graphs and tables, bookwork codes and checks, etc). And a lot of it is down to how the school uses it, rather than the fault of Sparx itself. Compared to Dr Frost or mymaths or some of the others, though, I think it stands up well - it has more variety in the question types than Dr Frost for example, where you just get 20 questions that are variations on about 3 types.

Yes, he's generally doing much better in assessments, he used to totally flunk tests, now averages 50-60%. Partly because he's less anxious about them and partly because it helps him to get the methods in his brain long term.

Eg if he spends a day learning pythag then does an assessment he could get 75%+ but then a week later he'd get 30%/forget it altogether. What he appreciates from Sparx is the constant repetition (particularly the mixed topic sets).

That repetition is probably dull for more able kids and frustrating for kids who really really struggle, but for a kid like him who has some ability but needs structure and scaffolding it's brilliant.

It sounds horrendous and clearly being used to plug the teacher shortage gap.
Any Scottish teachers here know if any Scottish schools use it or are planning to use it? Hoping not!

My DS is year 10 and hates it too, they used to use Hegarty Maths which he much preferred, wish the school would change back to it

Dd (15, yr 10) and dh might come to blows tonight (I'm exaggerating don't worry). Dd has been very close to tears a few times.

This is the girl who came home from school today and told me she got 93% in a test of GCSE questions.

I realise it might be useful to point out that she is trying to do her sparks for the week.